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Appendix C: Brief Summaries of Common Disabling Conditions

Every person with a disability is an individual, with their own mixture of strengths and weaknesses. No one student will have all the symptoms of a particular disorder. Students with the same disorder will require different accommodations. With that in mind, you will find below a short description of some of the more common disabilities on college campuses.

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

These developmental disabilities are characterized by inattentiveness, impulsivity, and in the case of hyperactivity disorder, restlessness or excessive activity. To receive such a diagnosis, the student must have displayed several symptoms of inattention or hyperactivity/ impulsivity before age 7 and to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level. A large percentage of individuals with ADD have learning disabilities and /or other conditions such as anxiety disorders and depression. Most students with the diagnosis are treated medically, though some receive psychotherapy.

Students with ADD or ADHD may have difficulty following lectures due to inconsistent concentration and attention. They may be chronically late to class or excessively absent. During activities that require focused attention, they may appear fidgety or sleepy. They often have difficulty with organization, including organization of their thoughts, and time management. Students with ADD often have difficulty pacing themselves. They may have difficulty focusing on major points while getting too involved in details.

Blind or Visually Impaired

Each student with a visual impairment is different. Most have useable vision and require only slight modifications. Students with low vision may be able to see fairly well in one situation but less well in others. A student is considered if his/her vision is no better than 20/70 with correction in the better eye. If the better eye is no better than 20/200 with correction, that person is legally blind. Having 20/200 vision means that one can see at 20 feet what a person with 20/20 vision can see at 200 feet. A student who is legally blind may still have a great deal of vision. One legally blind student might be able to read standard-size print at a very close range while another might need to have it enlarged or read to them. Another might have no vision and use Braille and a service dog.

Chronic Health Impairments

These impairments may result in limited strength, vitality, and alertness. Some examples of these disorders are cystic fibrosis, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, cancer, hemophilia, AIDS, muscular dystrophy, rheumatoid arthritis, and asthma. At times, these health impairments may require bed rest or hospitalization. The student's physical condition often varies from day to day. Three common characteristics of chronic health impairments are chronic, long-term nature of the disorder, lack of overt signs/ symptoms of impairments, and the need for frequent medical care.

Hearing Impairment or Deafness

Deaf students vary in their communication needs and preferences. Lip reading is only a partial solution since students usually only understand 25% to 45% of what is being said. Other forms of communication include sign language, a combination of sign language, finger spelling and speech, cued speech, or writing.

Many deaf students can and do speak. Some deaf students cannot automatically control the tone and volume of their speech or it may be difficult to understand the enunciation of specific sounds at first. Some students who do not speak choose to do so because they believe their speech will not be understood. Because American Sign Language is the most common form of communication for deaf persons, errors made in written English can result from grammatical differences in the structure of the two languages.

If a deaf student wears a hearing aid, one should not assume that he/ she can understand the spoken word. Furthermore, background noises can interfere with and distort the sound amplification of a student's hearing aid, making speech discrimination difficult. In addition, the student may have difficulty discriminating speech when more than one person is speaking.

Physical Disabilities

Orthopedic or physical disabilities may interfere with motor functioning, communication, academic, or social skills. Examples include disabilities present since birth such as cerebral palsy or spina bifida and those resulting from other causes such as spinal
cord injury.

Cerebral palsy is characterized by an inability to fully control motor function. The condition is caused most commonly by damage to the brain during pregnancy, labor, or shortly after birth. Depending on the extent of damage to the central nervous system, one or more of the following may occur: increased or decreased muscle tone, spasms, involuntary movement, disturbance of gait and mobility, abnormal sensation and perception, and impairment of vision, hearing, or speech. It may or may not have an effect on cognitive functioning.

Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal Cord Injury causes paralysis of certain parts of the body, depending on the location of the damage. Paraplegia refers to paralysis from approximately the waist down while quadriplegia refers to paralysis from approximately the shoulders down. In addition to loss of sensation and mobility, spinal cord injuries can result in impairment of the bladder and bowel.

Medical conditions such as arthritis, fibromyalgia, cardiovascular disorders, and muscular dystrophy may also result in mobility and coordination impairments.

Psychiatric/ Psychological Disabilities

Serving students with psychiatric disabilities on campus is relatively new. Their impairments may be hidden and have little or no effect on learning or their emotional disturbances may manifest themselves in negative behavior ranging from indifference to disruptiveness. Such conduct makes it hard to remember that they have as little control over their disabilities as do students with physical disabilities. This does not mean, however, that instructors must allow disruptive behavior in their classrooms.

Probably the most common psychiatric impairment among students is clinical depression. It may be manifested as a pathological sense of helplessness and hopelessness. It may appear as apathy, inattention, impaired concentration, irritability, or as fatigue or other physical symptoms.

Anxiety disorders are also common. Severe anxiety may reduce concentration, distort perception, and interfere with learning. Anxiety may manifest itself as withdrawal, constant talking, complaining, joking, or crying, or extreme fear to the point of panic. Panic attacks may include hyperventilation, tachycardia, nausea, or fainting.

Some students take prescription medications to help control disturbing feelings and behaviors. Sometimes these medications have undesirable side effects such as drowsiness, dry mouth, or disorientation.

Seizure Disorders or Epilepsy

Epilepsy refers to a sudden, brief change in the brain's functioning. Epilepsy involves recurring seizures of various types, ranging from massive convulsions to momentary lapses of attention, marked only by a momentary stare or random movement. Between seizures, most people with epilepsy are normal and healthy. Drug therapy results in partial to full control of seizures in most cases.

Depending on the type of seizure (generalized, when all brain cells are involved, or partial, limited to one part of the brain), the following are characteristics:

  • "Blackouts" or periods of confused memory
  • Episodes of staring or unexplained periods of unresponsiveness
  • Involuntary movement of arms and legs
  • "Fainting spells" followed by excessive fatigue
  • Odd sounds

Specific Learning Disabilities

This refers to a group of disorders signaled by significant difficulties in listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, and/ or mathematical abilities. This disorder is presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunctions. Learning disabilities include minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, developmental aphasia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia.

Students with learning disabilities have average to superior intellectual ability. Mary Washington College students with learning disabilities have met the same admission requirements as other MWC students. In a student with learning disabilities, there is a marked discrepancy between achievement and potential. Specific ability levels differ dramatically within the same individual.

There may be a noticeable difference between oral contributions in class and written work on class essays, tests, or papers. Students often have auditory or visual processing deficits. They typically have trouble taking information in through the senses and interpreting that information in a restricted time frame. For example, a very articulate, knowledgeable student may have difficulty reading and interpreting a set of written instructions. Others may be unable to write effectively. Long and short term auditory and/or visual memory deficits are common.

Because of perceptual deficits, some students with learning disabilities are slow to grasp social cues and respond inappropriately.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Brain injury can result from trauma caused by external events such as automobiles accidents and gunshot wounds or from internal events such as tumors, strokes, or infections of the brain.

Each student with a brain injury is different. Memory deficits are probably the most common result of brain injury. Memory of previously acquired knowledge is usually intact despite difficulty in acquiring new information and storing it for immediate recall. Most injuries result in some degree of impairment in the following areas: memory, cognition, perception, speed of thinking, communication, spatial reasoning, psychosocial behaviors and motor, sensory, and physical abilities. Fatigue and medications may affect attention and concentration. Students often take longer to process information and, therefore, display a slower response time.

Language functions such as writing, reading, speaking, and listening might be impaired. The student may have trouble comprehending written or spoken information under time pressure. Spatial reasoning deficits might result in difficulties with mathematics and reading maps.

Common types of psychological behavioral difficulties include depression, withdrawal, denial, frustration, irritability, lability, impulsiveness, disinhibition, and apathy. Head injuries may impair motor abilities or create seizure activity.